Building Capacity in State Science Education (BCSSE)

Building Capacity in State Science Education (BCSSE) is a project of the Council of State Science Supervisors (CSSS) designed to provide sustained professional development for state science supervisors to gain fluency and utility with the NRC Framework, create communication tools to disseminate key messages from the Framework to multiple state-based audiences, and develop a state-based strategic plan for work with the Framework and dissemination and adoption of NGSS. Our first meeting took place in Nashville, Tennessee on September 30th and October 1st, 2011 with the funding of Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE) and CSSS. BCSSE-Nashville brought together 43 states and 70 participants to begin the process of developing knowledge and capacity within the Framework for K-12 Science Education along with strategies and tools to communicate with various state-based sectors about the Framework and its key role in the development of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Work also began in Nashville to build state leadership teams which will help guide the individual states through the planning and implementation process of NGSS.